Dedicated to the preservation of Long Island's 'gold coast' estates and other things old.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

'Spring Hill'

An aerial of 'Spring Hill', originally the William L. Stow estate designed by John Russell Pope c. 1903 in Old Westbury and for many years owned by Henry Carnegie Phipps. The photo shows the house sometime in the teens or twenties as by 1932 the reflecting pools had been replaced by a swimming pool. Click HERE for more on 'Spring Hill' and HERE to see a 1932 aerial. Photo from the Olmsted Archives.

So far there are two houses that are about halfway complete on either side of the driveway (which can be seen on google earth) and two or three more in the pipeline so far (including one in the field at the front of the property).

Although the house leaves me cold personally, it is undeniably a masterful work, inside and out. The handling of the transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces, and changes in levels in the gardens, framing of vistas, all done with a sure hand, a sure sense of spatial effect. It shows what a really good architect can do in the classical idiom

While 28-yr old (or so) is remarkable by 2012 standards wasn't that somewhat typical for working architects of the era?

In an era when life expectancies were far less and following graduation from architectural school, did the standard European tour, and cut their teeth under the wing of an established firm I'd say a 25 - 35yr old was the best age to tap into clients, if so socially connected.

Harrie Lindeberg was already done with MM&W and designing with Lewis Alboro when he was 26-yrs old. Another MM&W grad, Charles Lewis Bowman, who is exceptionally underrated, also was in a solo practice at 28-yrs old.

But take a look at the 1932 picture. What's that dark rectangular patch of grass towards the front of the picture? It seems the wrong dimensions for croquet, and too large for badminton. Still, there's benches on both sides (and new steps just behind the bench closest to the house). Do you suppose someone once played tennis there? Small children perhaps?

"Mr. Phipps excelled at golfing, boating and tennis and won the United States tennis championship seven times in the 1930's and 1940's and the British amateur title in 1949. He was inducted into the International Court Tennis Hall of Fame in 2001."

In looking at this photo opposed to all the other rear elevations of the house, I notice the windows/doors on both rear wings of the house do not seem to be arched as in all the other photos. Upon looking even closer, it appears that the rear terrace balustrade does not line up with the two wings as in all the other photos. Perhaps the terrace was extended at some point, or the wings reached further out towards the retaining wall in this picture. It appears to me as though the wings were deeper, but why would they have been shortened? This is puzzling me!